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Sanofi Pasteur, CureVac ink wide-ranging vaccine deal

Nov 17, 2011 8:28am

Sanofi Pasteur and Germany's CureVac have signed a €150 million deal to develop and apply the latter's RNActive technology platform to the development of vaccines against several infectious diseases. And in a related deal, CureVac, Sanofi and France's In-Cell-Art will undertake a $33 million DARPA research program to identify and create a universal vaccine technology platform for infectious diseases.

Over the next four years, CureVac, Sanofi and In-Cell-Art will advance key aspects of the RNActive technology platform and evaluate several vaccine candidates in a number of disease models. In-Cell-Art is developing nano-carriers for macromolecular drugs which allows them to cross the cell barrier efficiently and safely, according to a release.

In a parallel agreement, Sanofi could give CureVac up to €101.5 million ($137.1 million) in milestones in return for the rights to several pre-defined pathogens. That number could grow to €150.5 million ($203.2 million) is Sanofi is able to develop a new therapeutic or preventative vaccine with a single pathogen.

"We are very pleased that Sanofi Pasteur has recognized the full potential of our RNActive technology platform for the development of vaccines particularly for infectious diseases. This multi-year collaboration will allow us to significantly strengthen our technology platform and to scale it up for commercial vaccination purposes," says Ingmar Hoerr, CEO of CureVac.